EAP1260/71/1

This palmleaf manuscript is of the text cūṭāmaṇi nikaṇṭu and accompanying notes. This manuscript was produced under the supervision of irāmacāmi kavirāyar. It was copied from a text published by the vētānta viḷakka press owned by pākkuppēṭṭai paramāṉanta mutaliyār, kumāramaturai mutaliyār and āṟkāṭu muṉiyappa mutaliyār. This text is dated 31st August 1860. The text includes subtopics that relate to names of deities, persons, trees, objects, other proper nouns, features of persons, artifically created shapes. The form of writing in Tamil involves dots above letters which was modern in the period in which this manuscript was created. It consists of 476 pages of which some pages are damaged. This text is part of the group of Tamil texts called nikaṇṭu which are glossarries of words which preserve the multiple meanings of words. This particular nikaṇṭu was written by maṇṭala puruṭar, a 16th C Jain scholar. The text and accompanying notes was popularised by its publication in 1938 by āṟumuka nāvalar of nallur in Jaffna or yāḻpāṉam. The publishers of the text which was copied to make this manuscript may have been from present day Tamilnadu from the place names suggested in their names. This manuscript suggests the circulation of both printed texts and shared practices of using printed texts to create palmleaf manuscripts at the cusp of the shift from palmleaf to paper printing in the 19th C. It indicates circulation of printed materials before the beginning of indigenous printing press in Jaffna and the transliteration between the two forms of book creation and circulation in the Tamil world.

Extent: 476.0.

Size and dimensions of original material: L 25.4 cm, W 2.6 cm.

Original institution reference: 1.0.